A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains or may contain material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the photocopy reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure in exactly the form it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates in general to a gaming device, and more particularly to a gaming device having an adjacent selection bonus scheme.
Gaming machines currently exist with bonus games in which a player has one or more opportunities to choose bonus awards that are initially masked from a group of symbols arranged in a pattern displayed to the player. When the player chooses a masked symbol from the pattern, the game removes the mask and either reveals a bonus value or reveals a bonus terminator which terminates the bonus game. The outcome depends upon whether the player picks an award or terminator. The processor of the gaming machine randomly places a predetermined number of bonus awards and bonus terminators in the pattern at the beginning of the bonus round and maintains the positioning until the bonus round terminates.
When the player picks a symbol that awards a bonus value, the player receives bonus credits and the bonus game typically displays a message that the player may continue and enables the player to pick another symbol. The player then picks another masked symbol, and the process continues until the player picks a bonus round terminator. European Patent Application No. EP 0 945 837 A2 discloses a bonus game of this type.
Certain implementations of this type of bonus scheme for a gaming device have been implemented in gaming machines of various types. While this type of gaming device has achieved significant popularity in the gaming industry, after playing the game repeatedly, players may lose interest in the game. To increase player enjoyment and excitement, it is desirable to provide players with new bonus games where the players have multiple opportunities to receive winning payouts. In particular, it is desirable to provide players with opportunities to receive awards from multiple levels of the bonus game or from multiple groups of awards, wherein the multiple levels and multiple groups form a theme that provides entertainment and excitement for the player.
The present invention provides a gaming device having a bonus game with an adjacent selection feature. In one embodiment of the present invention, the gaming device provides a plurality of adjacent player selectable selections. An award is associated with each player selectable selection. The award associated with each selectable selection is not initially displayed or revealed to the player. The player selectable selections are arranged or grouped into a plurality of associated or related selection sets. In one embodiment, each selection set has a different number of player selectable selections. In one embodiment, the related plurality of selection sets are arranged adjacent to each other to enable each player selectable selection in one set to be adjacent to at least one player selectable selection from another selection set. The player""s pick in each selection set limits the available selections in the subsequent selection sets.
Upon the triggering of the bonus game, the gaming device enables a player to pick a selectable selection from an initial set of selections. In one embodiment, as the player selects each selection, the award associated with the selected selection is revealed. In another embodiment, as the player selects each selection, the award associated with the selected selection as well as the awards associated with the non-selected selections in that selection set are revealed. Revealing the awards associated with the selectable selections that the player does not select increases player excitement and enjoyment by showing the player lost opportunities and the player""s relative success or failure in the bonus game. In another embodiment, the selected selection is highlighted but not immediately revealed to the player. After a selection has been selected from a selection set, the non-selected selections from that selection set become spent or marked and may no longer be selected by the player. Thus, in this embodiment, the gaming device enables the player to select one selection from each selection set.
After the player has selected an initial selection, the gaming device enables the player to select a selection from a related selection set that is adjacent or otherwise related to the player""s last selected selection (in the previous selection set). It should be appreciated that by enabling the player to only select selections that are adjacent or otherwise related to the last selected selection (in the previous selection group), with every selection the player is eliminating the possibility of obtaining the award associated with at least one selectable selection in a subsequent selection set. It should also be appreciated that each player selection may effect the possibility of obtaining awards associated with selections in a plurality of subsequent selection groups. In one embodiment, the award associated with the second selection set is highlighted and revealed to the player. In another embodiment, the selected selection from the second set is highlighted and not immediately revealed to the player. It should be appreciated that in this embodiment, the prior selected highlighted selection remains highlighted during subsequent player picks of selectable selections. In another embodiment, as each subsequent selected selection is highlighted, the gaming device reveals the award associated with prior selected selections from previous selection sets. The non-selected selections from the second selection set become spent or marked and cannot be selected by the player in subsequent selections as described above.
If the player has not selected one selection from each selection set, the gaming device enables the player to select another selection from a related selection set that is adjacent or related to the last selected selection and the bonus game proceeds as described above. In one embodiment, the game highlights each selected selection and reveals the award associated with the selected selection. In this embodiment, if the player has selected one selection from each selection set, the gaming device provides the player the sum total of all revealed awards and the bonus game ends. In one alternative embodiment, if the player has selected one selection from each selection set, the gaming device reveals the awards associated with all the prior selected highlighted selections. The player is awarded the sum total of the award associated with all the prior selected highlighted selections and the bonus game ends.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the gaming device provides at least one termination symbol or terminator. In another embodiment, the gaming device provides a plurality of termination symbols or terminators. The termination symbols or terminators are associated with a plurality of player selectable selections. The bonus game proceeds as described in the above embodiment, but if the player""s selected selection is associated with a termination symbol or terminator, the bonus game ends. In this embodiment, if the player obtains a termination symbol or terminator, the player is awarded the sum total of all awards associated with prior selected highlighted selections. It should be appreciated that if a player obtains a termination symbol, the game may provide no award, provide the player the last highlighted award, provide the player a consolation award or select another award to provide the player.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, a player""s prior selected highlighted selections may not remain highlighted during subsequent player selections. In this embodiment, after the player selects a selection, the gaming device may randomly unhighlight a plurality of the player""s prior selected highlighted selections. In another embodiment, a plurality of the player""s prior non-selected selections may become highlighted during subsequent player selections. In this embodiment, after the player selects a selection, the gaming device may randomly highlight a plurality of prior non-selected selections. In another embodiment, after the player selects a selection, the gaming device may randomly unhighlight a plurality of the player""s prior selected highlighted selections and also randomly highlight a plurality of prior non-selected selections.
In one embodiment, the gaming device may incorporate an offer-acceptance feature by enabling the player to end the bonus scheme at any point and collect the offers associated with the current highlighted selections. In this embodiment, the player may end the bonus scheme and accept the awards associated with the current highlighted selections or the player may continue selecting selections. If the player continues selecting selections, the player risks that the awards associated with the subsequently highlighted selections total more than the awards associated with the current highlighted selections. This embodiment provides increased entertainment to the player because with every selection, the player is risking that prior obtained awards associated with prior selected highlighted selections will no longer be provided to the player.
In another embodiment incorporating an offer-acceptance feature, after the player has picked an initial selection, the gaming device may enable the player to accept an offer associated with the picked selection or pick another selection that is directly related to the prior picked selection. If the player accepts the offer associated with the picked selection, the player obtains the offer and bonus game ends.
In an alternative embodiment of the present invention, the gaming device provides a plurality of player picks of the selectable selections. In one embodiment, the number of player picks of the selectable selections is equal to the number of selection sets. For each selection selected by the player the number of player picks of selectable selections is reduced by one. In this embodiment, the player may continue selecting selectable selections until the player has no remaining player picks of selectable selections.
In another alternative embodiment of the present invention, in addition to the plurality of awards associated with the plurality of player selectable selections, a plurality of player pick modifiers are associated with the plurality of player selectable selections. In one embodiment, each player pick modifier increases the number of remaining player picks of the selectable selections. In another embodiment, each player pick modifier decreases the number of remaining player picks of the selectable selections. In a further embodiment, a plurality of modifiers that increase the number of picks remaining and a plurality of modifiers that decrease the number of picks remaining are both associated with the plurality of player selectable selections. This embodiment increases the player""s enjoyment because each selection the player selects may either increase or decrease the number of picks of selectable selections the player may make and subsequently effect if the player will obtain another award. It should be appreciated that in this embodiment, if a player pick modifier is associated with a selected selection, the non-selected selections in that selection set are not spent or marked and may be selected in subsequent player selections.
It is therefore an advantage of the present invention to provide a gaming device having an adjacent selection bonus game.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying sheets of drawings wherein like numerals refer to like part, elements, components, steps and processes.